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Kasey and I have been talking for weeks about doing the Arctic to Indian ski traverse. The weather was perfect Saturday so we headed out early for the 22 mile ski. The snow bridges and trail were both in great shape.

A stitched together pano of Ship Creek.

Me & Kasey.

Sunshine turned to cloudy, moody weather as we approached Indian Pass and the Turnagain Arm.

Our first glimpse of the inlet. Kasey at Indian Pass. The snow was nice and soft, cushioning our falls on our waxless skis 🙂 The descent was better than I hoped (and remembered.)

It took us a pretty easy eight hours, stopping for snacks and pics, enjoying the views along the way.

We decided to switch things up a bit and head to Hatcher’s Pass to get some touring in. I usually only head up there early in the season, and was excited to find nice light powder, a few untracked lines, and good stability.

The crew.

Lee getting after it.

Jon making some turns.

Michelle aka Skittles.

Jon on the uptrack.

Kasey and Ryan.

Kasey dropping a knee.

Another beautiful day in the Talkeetnas. One of many spectacular views.

Our thermometer bottomed out at -25F on the ski in, so lets just say it was colder than that. At 12:30 AM, after 4 hours of skiing by stars-it was so cold our headlamps we nearly useless because our breath clouded the air in front of us-we finally arrived at the Crescent Saddle Cabin. It took us a bit longer than we anticipated since we had to break trail across Carter and Crescent Lakes, unable to find a snowmachine track to follow across the lakes, and we brought heavy loads with a ton of gear for lofty plans that should’ve got axed at the trailhead 🙂 We stayed up till 4:30 AM trying to warm up the cabin, before we crawled into our sleeping bags wearing every layer we had with us. The cabin was 7F degrees next to the wood stove and the walls still frosty.

Everyone’s favorite. Hoarfrost on the toilet.

Feeding the fire all night we managed to get it up to a balmy 27F degrees by the time we dragged ourselves out of bed. Walls still frosty. Dan, Heidi, and I headed out for a tour up the saddle between Crescent and Kenai lakes, continuing on up the mountain on the left, while Lee and Jon stayed behind to cut more (much needed) firewood and keep the fire going. Daytime temps warmed up to -5F, almost a heat wave!

Dan skinning up.

It was a bluebird day with fresh powder. We had a blast making the only tracks on the mountain!

Heidi skiing.Dan skiing.Heidi making turns.Dan cruising through the trees.

The skiing was amazing! When we arrived back at the cabin Lee and Jon had managed to get the cabin up to a reasonable temperature so our beer could unfreeze 🙂 Actually, by early evening as the temperatures dropped again outside, the cabin was warm enough to layer down to just our long underwear and the walls defrosted. Success!

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Sometimes, even the best planned trips, don’t go as planned. Six of us were set to spend a four day weekend at the Shrode Lake cabin in Prince William Sound for a weekend of skiing, kayaking, hot tubbing in our portable hot tub, and two kegs of Midnight Sun finest. It’s fair to say we weren’t planning on packing light for this trip, to say the least 🙂 But, at the last minute, gale force winds and 10 ft seas kept us out of the Sound, so we checked the weather around the state, quickly repacked our gear (much less of it!) and headed north to Fairbanks where warm, sunny skis greeted us. We spent the night in Fairbanks with Katie and Will, and then the six of us headed north to the White Mountains and the Colorado Creek cabin.

The trail is about 14 miles each way, mostly in and out of a forest of spruce trees-many that had been through a forest fire in recent years. Although, once you rise in elevation,get near the cabin, the views open up to the beautiful white mountains.